CD Reviews

Don't Hold it at Arm's Length

Snow Leopard | Urbana, IL | 10/16/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Before I start, if you are not a little bit familiar with Merzbow, I can only wonder how you got here. Nevertheless, the genre he represents is "noise" but it's not noise of a minimalist sort (usually) and not noise of a banging on the trash-cans sort (usually). If you started somewhere in the vicinity of white noise, plus sheer pulsing, you might have an inkling. Wide frequency ranges, throbbing squelches, subharmonic oscillations, feedback, distortion as thick as gauze stuffed into a fatal puncture wound, frequently long and relentless, but not unvarying tracks. Make no mistake, this is the opposite of minimalist--it is saturation, maximalist. Relentless.

Second, the two things I gather from reading the reviews are--fans compare this to other albums (and generally find others better), while others (whose opinions are given freely) feel compelled to condemn this disc with one star. This doesn't seem especially helpful, unless you are already a Merzbow initiate, in which case, you should know that given his truly prodigious output, comparing this noise to other noise is far more obviously an exercise in taste than it might be when rating the albums of more conventional artists. In other words, what does this album itself have to offer?

To begin with, noting that this is "not for the weak" or that it amounts to an aural assault makes the disc into something elitistly precious. Far more than most classical music, and even most pop music, nearly anyone could listen to this and "understand" it--for the same reason that one will start noting patterns in white noise if stared at. Beyond this, however, this disc is intensely sublime--that is, it is beautiful in the same way that the overwhelming grandeur of the mountains are beautiful, or that thunderheads are. It is beauty in a gargantuan, awe-full guise. There is also tremendous, visceral power here.

Around 15'30" of "Iron, Glass, Blocks, and White," for instance, after a fuzz-crush that seems to choke the sound into silence, a rolling, cycling alarm sound goes off, while a really yummy tube-amp note throbs and wavers like a candle in the middle of everything, surrounded by splatters of slashing noise. The background then takes on a long, sustained handsome note that throbs with the tube-amp noise. Distortion everywhere. Then it all fades away. One could nearly describe the passage in terms of conventional beauty here, almost.

The beginning of "Degradation of Tapes," as well, starts with three seconds of distorting flanging and then just crushingly smashes in with a distortion echo that twists up to a delay rate of nearly zero. It is a beginning, an opening gesture, that you will not find in popular music, progressive rock, or classical music even in almost all of its most avant-garde practitioners.

From there, a forefronted white noise that is like sitting front row center to a blast furnace blazes in front of slow-flanging distortion behind. The foreground then spasms from white noise, VCF shifts and god knows what else while a gorgeous crystalline solo note skitters around in the background. After about 2'15", the foreground becomes something like a broken staticy radio, just before the pipe truck crashes at 130 mph inside of the long, long echoing tunnel. Etc.

It is perhaps unfortunate that Merzbow is known for doing "noise." An oboe makes noise also. Although from a musical standpoint, it is not necessary to distinguish between musical noise, i.e., orchestras and Merzbow alike, and noise noise, i.e., a door slamming and footsteps receding, if nothing else, the noise that Merzbow makes can be listened to. One's attention can follow rising and falling sounds, or can get caught up in the crisscross of rising and falling sounds; one can listen to the foregorund, or very attentively try to pull out the background; one can follow and lose the various repetitions and pulses that stand in as beats; and one can, on multiple listenings, invent anew each time the "melody" that you follow as your brain wanders through the fractured crashes of white noise, distortion and panning.

In that respect, it is worth noting that 1930, if you can get through it once, particularly lends itself to being listened to again and again. One of the most interesting features of this kind of saturated noise is that it is very difficult to remember; as such, one experiences it differently almost every time. There might be other ways to accomplish this musically, but certainly it is a very interesting feature of such music. It is attention-sustaining in a way that most conventional music is not. Put another way, and rather ironically, this is not ambient background music at all. Played as such, it becomes noise of the annoying, worthless kind.

Instead, relax, put on headphones, turn it up, and experience the joy of really getting to listen to music. Ironically, this music can at times be relaxing, in the sense that it wears you out. Certainly, as one reviewer noted, it causes his thoughts to neutralize. And yes, it can be hard to listen to the whole disc all at once.

Do other Merzbow albums do this as well, or better, or worse? One would have to hear for one's self. In the meantime, 1930 is an excellent, however partial, tour through an all-engaging aural soundscape."

Attack on the mind.

Lord Chimp | Monkey World | 01/29/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"An old friend once told me that this album was, "Unbearable noise." Truth is, she was right. And yet I find the experience of listening to _1930_ uniquely physical and intense. It's abrasive, jarring, and leaves me wide-eyed and frightened for the entire time. This is not music: blasts of irregular frequencies that will make your ears bleed, slabs of deafening static, grotesque shrieks of lacerating distortion. Eegah...what is it? Merzbow is an experiment in noise creation, targeting physical reactions to different sonic assaults. There is nothing intellectual about this album -- you can't exactly think about it, there is no emotional response...you just react. Listening to this is a pain so acute and unusual that it is like a strange pleasure. At the very least, it's good for a prank. This would definitely work as a cruel way to jar someone out of a pleasant sleep. They'll think aliens are coming to abduct them. Seriously though, I can't recommend this to anyone. Unless you're really weird."

Highly composed and dynamic

The Pitiful Anonymous | the Acres of Skin | 01/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While as loud and amelodic as reputed, Merzbow is not at all random or 'mindless feedback and noise'. 1930 is an excellent noise composition with plenty of rhythmic sounds and a lot of variation in texture and frequency. While there are no 'beats' or recognizable instruments, there are repeated patterns, and plenty of loud/soft contrast. This is my first Merzbow album and it's succeeded in getting me interested in his other work... People can say it isn't music, but it's definitely sound as art... which to me, is what music is.

1930 is the perfect example of the noise genre- sound without familiarity. You won't listen to it and hear any noise that makes you say "Oh, I know where he got that". Some of it may be sampled but he alters it beyond recognition. Because of this the overall effect of the album is one of relaxation, a sort of cleaning of the mind.

Listened to as a whole this album takes you to a cold, inhuman but not at all threatening place in the subconscious. If I'm agitated or stressed out, putting on 1930 neutralizes my feelings. The sound doesn't remind me of anything in particular, so I don't think of anything in particular when it's playing. Other people (fans) have expressed similar reactions to it. All the compositions on this album are different and well thought out, while at the same time having a spontaneous quality that lets you know it was created by a feeling, creative human being. It's a dynamic album too, there's quiet to go along with the loud.

If you find Merzbow too unpleasant, simply don't listen to it, but I don't see the point (Scott Baldwin) of posting a worthless negative review on EVERY album of his you can find. If you hate him so much there's no reason for you to have heard ALL of those albums, and you can't review albums you haven't heard.

Merzbow defines a form of art that only existed in small amounts (metal machine music, some TG) before he was around. I recommend Merzbow to those who are still interested after reading the reviews on this site. I also recommend SPK, Non and Metal Machine Music for something similar.

5 stars. This is as good as noise gets."

Great

mos | right here. | 11/03/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yeah, I love this stuff. It's just great, well at least it has got some great moments I mean.... Merzbow rules!"

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Lord Chimp | 06/11/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A Merzbow release with some fine moments, to be sure; it grows on me themore I listen to it. However, I don't consider this essential. Muchof it feels watered down and murky. This might be intentional, but the effect doesn't appeal to me in the way that the fascinating sea of hiss and gurgle interaction on a release like "Tentacle," does, for instance. 1930 is a good addition for the Merzbow collector, but I don't personally consider it one of Akita's best."